Brussels, 10 August 2022
See question(s) : E-002079/2022
EN
E-002079/2022
Answer given by Ms Johansson
on behalf of the European Commission
(10.8.2022)
E-002079/2022
Answer given by Ms Johansson
on behalf of the European Commission
(10.8.2022)
The Commission’s proposal for a regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse1 does not ban access to the software applications, such as WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook for users under the age of 18.
The obligations imposed on software application stores under Article 6 aim to support the prevention of access by children to software applications that may present a significant risk of misuse for the purpose of solicitation. A pertinent example are dating applications for adults that software applications stores nonetheless may make available to all users, including minors, even against the explicit indication of the developer of the software application that access to such software applications should not be made available to users under specific age.
For these software applications, preventing their download by children would avert the risk of solicitation, possibly also eliminating the need for detection orders if the identified risks would be effectively addressed by risk mitigating measures implemented by the provider of the software application store. Hence, the obligations imposed by Article 6 are coherent with the aim of adopting the least privacy intrusive solution in any situation.
1 Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, COM/2022/209 final of 11.05.2022.
Source : © European Union, 2022 – EP